Dennis Udink, a Utah resident I met through Flickr and with whom I have hiked on previous Utah trips, poses for me at Woodside, Utah. Although we are together, we are not traveling together. Let me explain.

A few minutes earlier, while driving toward Moab, I had pulled over at Woodside, parking in front of the defunct gas station. As I fussed with some equipment in my car a vehicle pulled up and stopped right next to mine. I thought that was weird, so I looked over at it. The driver was looking at me but I didn’t recognize him. Still weird, but after a second or two I realized it was Dennis and thought “Cool !” His sporty sunglasses must have thrown me off.

He was heading for the southern portion of the San Rafael Reef for a day hike, spotted the Green Weenie by the side of the road, and pulled over to say “Hello.” After we chatted for a few minutes he took off. Shortly thereafter I left for Moab.

Our meeting on the road was ironic because we had been planning to get together during my trip for some hiking at Moab. This planning began before I left home and up until this point we had not settled on a date that would fit our schedules. Sadly, we never did go hiking together, so we must try harder during my next trip to Utah.

"Swell" is the wording on Dennis's license plate.
One of his favorite haunts is the San Rafael Swell.